Totemism in Australia is linked to the Dreamtime - the time before time
- the time outside time - the time of creation, when the ancestral
beings, the totemic ancestors, roamed the land, giving birth to the
people of the various totemic groups and naming the animals, plants,
landscape features, etc.

It has been described by Elkin as '...a view of nature and life, of the
universe and man, which colours the Aboriginal People' social groupings and
mythologies, inspires their rituals and links them to the past. It
unites them with nature's activities and species in a bond of mutual
life-giving. ...' and that it is 'relationship between a person or a
group of persons and (for example) a natural object or species, as part
of nature'. It is worldview in which a human is an integral part of
nature, not distinct from other natural species, sharing with them the
same life essence.

In the Dreamtime, the formative period, the various species had not
fully assumed the shapes they have today. Their physical manifestations
were more fluid. They could manifest themselves in the human form or of
a particular species of animal. A goanna ancestor could look like a man,
but potentially change to look like a goanna. This is the basis of the
connection between the living people and the ancestral being, the person
having a connection with the type of goanna represented by the ancestor.

Only 1 person is involved in a special relationship with some natural
species, or a particular member of that species. The relationship is a
personal one, not usually shared r inherited. There are actually
cases of inheritance, as among the Wuradjeri, a youth may be given a
totem during his initiation. There is also a form of 'assistant
totemism', in which a totem animal may serve as a familiar, or 'second
self' for a
native doctor. There is another form among the Wuradjeri, a
native doctor may take a 10-12 year-old-child from the main
camp and 'sing' the assistant into him (bala or jarawajewa
- 'meat' or totem within him, or the 'spirit animal'. In that case the
bala is of patrilineal descent. It is widely distributed throughout New
South Wales. Native doctors have spirit snakes in central, north and
north-western Australia, associated with the
Rainbow Serpent. The
patrilneally inherited totem serves as an assistant in its physical and
well as its spiritual form, among the Jaraldri on the Lower
Murray.
There are some songmen in western Arnhem Land who specialise in gossip
songs, dealing with contemporary people. These songmen usually
attribute new songs with a non-inherited familiar, a spirit or creature,
that reveals itself in a dream.

Each sex can have an emblem, such as a bird or animal, which usually
signifies solidarity of that sex as distinct from the other. Injuring or
killing the sex totem animal is like challenging or attacking that sex
associated with it. An example was observed among the Kurnai of
Gippsland. Among these people the emblems of the sexes are 2 different
birds, one for each sex, who regard them as elder brother for men and
elder sister for women. In this society marriages take place by
elopement, and the girls can refuse a suitor. Conflict among the
male-female totems helps overcome shyness of young people of
marriageable age. Older women can kill a male totem and display it in
the camp. This enrages the men and fighting takes place between young
men and women. Later a young man can meet a young girl and call her by
the female totem name, asking what that creature eats. Her reply can be
something like, 'she eats kangaroo', or 'she eats possum.' This is a
formal offer and acceptance of marriage, and the young couple elope.
This system is usually associated with the south-east of Australia, with
matrilineal moieties and matrilineal social totemic clans. It did
exist in other places.

This is widespread across the continent, but is most marked in the
southeast and the southwest. In many cases it is expressed through other
forms of totemism. For example, in northeastern Arnhem Land the social
and natural environment, and the mythological constellations are
distributed between the two moieties. There are hundreds of objects
which could be termed totemic, these could be divided into major and
minor totems. In western Arnhem Land, the matrilineal moieties are
divided into phratries, each of which is
associated with one or more totems.

In aboriginal Australia, some tribal groups are divided into 4 or 8
categories, based on the lines of indirect matrilineal descent. One or
more natural phenomena, representing its members, distinguishing them
from others, can be identified or linked to a particular category. In the
eastern Kimberleys there is a totemic bond of kinship, and they adopt a
ritual attitude towards the totem. In northeastern Arnhem Land, several
totems are associated with each subsection. Some examples are, wamud
is associated with the wedge-tailed eagle, buralang with
rock kangaroo,
heron, albatross and wallaby. The subsection system is relatively new to
to this region, so is not tightly integrated with the cult totemism of
the clan-linguistic unit. In the eastern Kimberleys, north of Balgo,
narangu - the subsection totems were treated more like namesakes,
having no taboos associated with them. They weren't treated with
respect.

A clan is a group claiming common descent in the male or female line.
They share a common relationship with 1 or more natural phenomena. For
the members of this unit, the clan, the totem is a symbol of membership
of the unit. It is recognised for the members of this clan and those of
other clans. This totem has strong territorial and mythological ties
associated with it, and it is believed that it can warn them of
approaching danger.

Some distinguish between matrilineal social clan totemism and
patrilineal clan totemism. Matrilineal clan totemism is widespread
throughout eastern Australia - Queensland, New South Wales, western
Victoria and eastern South Australia. There is also a small area in the
southwest of Western Australia. The genera translation of the word for
this totem is 'flesh' or 'meat' - the person is 'of one flesh' with his
totem. The totems connected with matrilineal phratries of western Arnhem
Land are not the centre of cult life, and the members of the phratry
don't have a special attitude towards it. The totems of the matrilineal
social clans are the centre of cult life. An example among the Dieri is
the mardu. It is really an avunculineal (of the mother's
brother's line) cult totem. Patrilineal clan cult totemism, bindara,
is also found in this tribe. Patrilineal clan totemism was present in
parts of Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Cape York, coastal
areas of New South Wales and Queensland, central Victoria, along the
lower Murray and the Coorong district and among the
Lake Eyre groups.
The best example was among the Jaraldi, Dangani, etc. and northeastern
Arnhem Land. In eastern Arnhem Land a combination of aspects, including
non-totemic, were associated with the clan. A clan has several totemic cults, and these can be associated with more then one
linguistic group. In central Australia totemic combinations were
apparent
but less strongly so.

With this people of a particular site or locality share a common totem,
which is not connected with kin relationships or descent. The
totem/totems were connected with the site. Totemism that is determined
by the locality in which a child was born, such as the
Great Victoria Desert, among
others. In such a case this is also birth totemism. Births nearly always
occur in the local territory of the father, so it is patrilineal local
(cult) totemism. The main difference between local and patrilineal cult
clan totemism is that descent is not a major factor - though there was a
tendency for it to become patrilineal. A good example existed among the
Aranda, where it is the conception, not the birth, that determines local
totemic cult membership. A person associated with a particular site that
has mythological associations has therefore a direct link with the
totemic being connected with that site. People connected with a
particular site share a bond.

Conception totemism can be identified with local totemism. The place a
mother first realises she is pregnant determines the child's ritual
(cult) totem, according to the totemic or other connections with that
site, as among the Aranda. It can be near a track followed by a being
from the Dreamtime, a waterhole of other landscape feature formed in the
Dreamtime by the various beings inhabiting the area at the time of
creation. It is preferably associated with the ritual or cult totem of
father, though this is not essential.

In some areas a man can find a spirit child in a dream or vision before
the mother knows she is pregnant, he may 'know' a spirit child is to
incarnated in his wife. The child may appear in conjunction with a
natural phenomenon, often one connected with the father, with his
country, or the his social unit. This is the child's conception totem.
If a mother becomes sick after eating a particular food and later dreams
of a spirit child. The food will be considered the conception totem, the
child having entered her body with it, or taken the shape of the food.
In some cases the spirit may not be connected to the totem. In
northeastern Arnhem Land the totemic affiliations are oblique, even
though it takes the form of some natural species, and is not directly
significant to the resulting child. The spirit centres at which unborn
children live in the Great Victoria Desert are not totemic, though
spirit beings from the Dreamtime put them there, so they have indirect
associations with the dreamtime. Spirit children were made by the
Rainbow Serpent in the eastern Kimberleys, in the anthropomorphic form.
At Balgo they are directly totemic, being associated with mythological
sites.

In this form of totemism the place where a child is born determines its ritual
or cult totem, rather than its place of conception. Men in the
Great
Victoria Desert tried to make sure their wives gave birth in their own
country, preferably at a site near a track of the Dreamtime being most
closely associated with him.

This overlaps other types of totemism - individual and/or assistant
totemism, conception, birth. In dreams a person can be consistently
represented by a natural phenomenon which he is known to have a close
link with. He can identify himself with a totemic being, either human or
other form, in his dreams and dreams of others, the actions of the being
and his. A dream totem, not identified as being his other self,
may perform certain services in a dream. Spirit familiars of western
Arnhem Land songmen and the spirit assistants of
native doctors are
examples of this. In the first example a person may appear in his
dream-shape even after death. A person's ritual or cult totem is the one
most often appearing in this way in many parts of Australia. This is the
case in north-eastern Arnhem Land, but not in the Great Victoria Desert,
though here the same word is used for totem and dream.

Multiple or classificatory totemism, may be associated with other types of
totemism, moeity, clan, section, subsection, phratry or local totemism.
The known universe, or major aspects of it is categorised on this basis.
The main totem is regarded with a special attitude, and to all secondary
totems classified with it. This form is common. An example from
north-eastern Arnhem Land is:

'The Djanggawul sisters and brother walked along the east coast until
they came to Ngadibalji, where they saw a mangrove bird. Here the
brother left his hair belt: It is now a sandhill. On the sandhill were
the tracks of wild duck, which were eating wild peanut roots. On the
opposite side was a large barren sandhill; and on the surface of this
were goanna tracks and the tracks of many birds. A tree with inedible
'apple'-like nuts was growing there too; this is a sacred bullroarer
tree. Here the Djanggawul paused and heard the cry of the black
cockatoo. Here too is the sacred waterhole which they made, and beside
which they camped.'

Although the Djanggawul are not really totemic they might be the major
totem. Men or women belonging to this site would also have a secondary
totem, not actually graded as such, mangrove bird, hair belt, wild duck,
nut tree, black cockatoo. He might claim any one of them as his totem,
which implies association with all of them.

'The Wadi Gudjarra (Two Men), in the course of their wanderings across
the country, reached gabi (waterhole) Bindibindina. Here they
made camp, ate berries, and picked flowers to put in their hair. They
also made bindi, sharply pointed sticks with bunched shavings at one
end, which they used for decoration. They prepared feather down for
putting on their bodies: some of it fell from their hands and became
stones. They drew blood from their arms and some fell on the ground and
became red ochre...'

The major totem here would be the Wadi Gudjara; and a man or woman
belonging to that site would have all the other totemic affiliations as
well.